As they rode in the presidential limousine to the U.S. Capitol on Inauguration Day in 2009, President George W. Bush offered some last-minute advice to President-elect Barack Obama: Announce a pardon policy early and stick to it.

President Obama speaks during his final presidential news conference Jan. 18 at the White House.

As they rode in the presidential limousine to the U.S. Capitol on Inauguration Day in 2009, President George W. Bush offered some last-minute advice to President-elect Barack Obama: Announce a pardon policy early and stick to it.

"On the ride up Pennsylvania Avenue . . . I told Barack Obama about my frustrations with the pardon system,” Bush wrote in his memoir.

Obama did not seriously focus on pardons and commutations until 2014, two years into his second term. But on Thursday, his last full day in office, Obama announced 330 more commutations, for nonviolent drug offenders, bringing his total number of clemencies to 1,715. He has granted commutations to more people than the past 12 presidents combined, including 568 inmates with life sentences. He has granted 212 pardons. His final group of clemencies was the most Obama granted in a day and the most granted on one day in U.S. history.

WASHINGTON — The escalating American military engagement in Somalia has led the Obama administration to expand the legal scope of the war against Al Qaeda, a move that will strengthen President-elect Donald J. Trump's authority to combat thousands of Islamist fighters in the chaotic Horn of Africa nation. Full Article

"To put an end to piracy we need to combat the root causes - poverty, absence of functioning institutions and a lack of opportunities for our young people in Somalia. We have to continue to stabilize and rebuild Somalia, promote good governance and rule of law and foster socio-economic development. Full Article

"Now that peace is returning to Somalia, we urgently need to re-establish our education system, which has been devastated by two decades of fighting. The Ministry for Human Development and Public Services has already launched the ambitious Go 2 School campaign, which will see $117 million invested over three years, with the aim of getting one million more children into schools. Full Article

"We encourage the UN, member states and international partners to ensure that sufficient and regular finance is made through the trust fund. This will allow the SNA, alongside AMISOM, to expand their scope and area of operations, bringing peace and stability to the whole of Somalia and ensuring there is no safe haven for Al-Shabaab. The long-term security and stability of Somalia will ultimately lie with the Somali National Security Forces" Full Article

Waagacusubmedia.info - The government of President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and Prime Minister Hassan Ali Kheyre is out of control, using security forces to target opposition political figures. The attacks are part of a proxy war orchestrated and led by Fahad Yasin, the Chief of Staff of Villa Somalia, using the National Intelligence and Security Agency, current and former Al-Shabaab's Amniyat operatives paid for and loyal to Fahad and Qatar.

Deadly attacks on reporters and their news outlets as well as a government campaign of repression under a new media law marked 2016 in Somalia, reinforcing a dangerous climate of impunity toward the news media, says the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ).

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the inauguration of the new Federal Parliament of Somalia on 27 December and warmly congratulated the people of Somalia on this historic achievement in their quest for universal suffrage by 2020.

Waagacusubmedia.info - The government of President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and Prime Minister Hassan Ali Kheyre is out of control, using security forces to target opposition political figures. The attacks are part of a proxy war orchestrated and led by Fahad Yasin, the Chief of Staff of Villa Somalia, using the National Intelligence and Security Agency, current and former Al-Shabaab's Amniyat operatives paid for and loyal to Fahad and Qatar. Full Article

According to just released information sourced from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the FSNAU between October 2015 and April 2016, a period of only six months, upwards of 400,000 Somali's, two thirds of whom were children, died of starvation. Full Article

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the inauguration of the new Federal Parliament of Somalia on 27 December and warmly congratulated the people of Somalia on this historic achievement in their quest for universal suffrage by 2020. Full Article